Saracens exploit Bristol turnovers & ease to win

1st Bristol try
By Duncan Wood
September 1 2002

On a perfect day at the Memorial Stadium, Saracens ruined the party. Bristol were far from being at their best and Saracens took full advantage. Individual errors and turnover ball killed the Shoguns.

Bristol's errors were ruthlessly exploited by a Saracens team who appear to have had some steel added by Wayne Shelford who looks a little more rotund than I remembered him!

We gifted the Men in Black their first three tries through unnecessary turnovers. They probably couldn't believe their luck especially when referee Whitehouse either didn't see or chose to ignore some blatant and crucial infringements especially at the restarts.

Credit to Saracens, however, they accepted the turnovers and turned them into tries. When Bristol advanced into the Sarries 22, which they did on many occasions, the Saracens' defence held firm and they were willing to give Bristol the penalty rather than concede the try.

Saracens started like a team who were well up for it and frankly caught Bristol cold. An early Andy Goode penalty was swiftly followed by a score for Thomas Castaignede after a Bristol turnover although Bristol supporters on the Centenary Stand side were incensed by a foot in touch which was proved by the divot in the turf it left!

Bristol did try and up the pace and were rewarded with a longe range Shane Drahm penalty but were hampered by their inability to hold on to the ball at the breakdown and a habit of falling off the tackle when Saracens attacked.

Saracens were then presented with another score when Bristol set up a ruck on their own 22 only for the ball to fly out of the back. Andy Goode raced through, scooped the ball up and went over despite the attentions of two tacklers.

It was kicks all the way up until half time with Goode dropping a goal which was matched by a drop from Felipe Contepomi and 3 more penalties from Drahm.

Frankly, most Bristol supporters would have been happy with only a 15-21 deficit at the break. The team performance had been pretty poor and the feeling was that things could only get better!

Sadly it didn't! From the second half restart, Alex Brown secured possession and set up a ruck. The ball went loose again and Sarries poured through. Andy Goode made a break and put Tom Shanklin in under the posts. 15-28 and the game was virtually gone.

O'Mahony showed some fine finishing to use the dummy runner and go outside David Rees to score in the left corner and then Tim Horan scythed through a gap to set up O'Mahony for his second.

Bristol scored two late tries when a nice backs move put David Rees in near the right hand corner flag and then Felipe Contepomi supported a good break from Mike Lipman and scored his usual try.

30-45 was a prety fair reflection but left Bristolians wondering what might have been had Saracens not been gifted so much possession which was translated into points.

We simply turned over too much ball and there were too many individual errors. We didn't get our strike runners over the gain line and Sarries ruthlessly exploited any errors. Castaignede's line kicking was especially punishing.

I also felt that we got a raw deal from the referee. He missed the Bristol catcher being taken out at the restart at least twice and there was also a lot of obstruction around the fringes. fair play to Sarries, they kept on getting away with it so they carried on doing it.

It was disappointing to hear Shane Drahm getting stick after only 10 minutes or so. Getting abuse like that isn't going to do any good. We're supposed to get behind the team!

There were positives. Agustin Pichot led by example in the second half. He made several sizzling breaks and, if anything, was too quick for his own team and ran out of support. Perhaps that sums up the game - some good stuff individually but the teamwork was missing.

Lee Best put in a fine effort at full back and I thought that the pack did pretty well at the set piece although Gus was left unprotected at a few rucks. Felipe delighted the crowd with his usual whole hearted performance when he entered the fray.

It's early days and understandably disappointing. We created chances and didn't finish them. We turned ball over and paid the price.

Well played Sarries.